The Gando Special Force (GSF; Chinese: 間島特設隊; pinyin: Jiāndǎo Tèshèduì; Wade–Giles: Chien1-tao3 T'e4-she4-tui4; Japanese Hepburn romanization: Kantō Tokusetsutai; Korean: 간도 특설대, romanized: Gando Teugseoldae) was an independent battalion within the Manchukuo Imperial Army composed primarily of ethnic Koreans,[1] and some experienced foreign mercenaries from Asia tasked with suppressing anti-Japanese, and pro-communist militant groups in the border areas between northern Japanese occupied Korea and Manchukuo.
Ex-GSF soldiers/officers are regarded as chinilpa (derogatory term for collaborators with Japan) in modern Korea for their role in suppressing groups advocating Korean independence.
In an effort to subjugate the region, the Japanese recruited pro-Japanese Korean volunteers into a special warfare force and had trained by the Manchukuo Imperial Army primarily in counterinsurgency tactics.
[2] A number of ethnic Koreans saw better opportunities for advancement via the Manchukuo military academies than would have been impossible in the Imperial Japanese Army, and joined the new force.
[3] Historian Philip Jowett noted that during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Gando Special Force "earned a reputation for brutality and was reported to have laid waste to large areas which came under its rule.